


Can you?

by littleforw



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-27
Updated: 2014-08-27
Packaged: 2018-02-15 00:18:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2208510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleforw/pseuds/littleforw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma doesn't want to get in touch with her magic, but when Mary Margaret makes her go on blind dates and she causes an accident the Savior has to take lessons with Regina... She just didn't expect that through it their relationship would start changing. Entirely SwanQueen!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Can I come in?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of its characters, and this is made with entertaining purposes only.

She was still in shock with everything she'd just went through hours ago, and the words Regina kept repeating haunted her from the first second following the clumsy incident, if that could be actually called that. When the flame first abrupt form the man's forearm she took few seconds to mind. And that's how boring her hot date was going. She couldn't stand a second more of the craziest talk about how they made to get herbs to grown at the extremely infertile grounds of the fairy-tale land. Most boring night she ever had.

Mary Margaret was definitively hearing from her after being obligated to go out with strangers for consolation.  _Maybe one of them actually is your soul mate_. She argued just previously to Emma's decline. So much for soul mates, she should have stuck with her  _no._  But then there was the talk of how Snow White just wanted her daughter to know the happiness she had with Prince Charming, so when Emma noticed she wasn't giving up, had been insisting for a month or so, she just thought it would be a good idea to show why not. This was her second arranged date and she almost threw fire over the poor guy. A man to die for. She really wanted to kill herself. And almost an hour through listening she wished he'd, slightly, burn and stop talking. An innocent wish, she could almost visualize it. And the flames came alive suddenly.

She spent part of her night at the hospital feeling the guilty of her thoughts. And Regina's words.  _Practice is the only way to control it._

Till very recently she only lacked need for knowledge into her powers or anything related to magic and the fantasy world. She refused to even talk about it, but the first incident came. Sure she just burnt the chicken she tried and failed cooking out of frustration. Before it happened she didn't consider for a fraction of a second she could be the cause of a potential accident, she thought white magic was different, and she was entirely wrong.

When finally one of the nurses came by the waiting room with comforting words saying her companion was fine she rested peacefully with the situation.

The apartment of her parents, now a bigger one, was where Emma and Henry, well mainly she as her son did have a room at Regina's, were staying until Emma found a place for herself. When she looked the watch over the nightstand the late hour startled her. She was so screwed.

Without carrying for anything but the boots and belt, she threw her body on the bed and just slept in.

The phone alarm was programmed to sound at exactly 7 a.m., but when her eyes stroke open she was fairly sure the sunbeam invading the room was too strong to be as early as she expected.

"Emma, didn't you scheduled practice with Regina for this morning?"

Practice. Practice? Fuck! The clock announced the hours, was almost 10 a.m., Regina would kill her. She cursed the alarm as many times as she could. Fucking date, she remembered what caused her loss of time. Remembering the flop date, the magic accident, and the fact that she couldn't leave the hospital till very late, because apparently the staff was not coming to give any information on her date's state, she already set the man on fire, literally, the least she could do was to stay and guarantee he was okay.

She should have arrived the meeting with Regina about two hours before Mary invaded her room to open the rag and wake her. Great, she missed her lesson, which Regina would certainly call a strike three even knowing that strike two wasn't actually her fault.

By the advanced time there wasn't much to do, except wait till lunchtime came so she could collect her shame and walk in the mayor's office with a pack of things to make the mayor happier and her apologies.

And that's what she did. She went to Regina's first thing in the noon, but not before swinging by Granny's and grabbing one of Regina's usual treats. With a spacial add of black coffee. Granny herself gave Emma the tip, when she first had to bring in apology meals for the mayor, always add coffee to whatever you are taking her.

And there she was on the hallway, knocking on the woman's door and holding the pack of food in front of her chest with her best smile when Regina opened.

"Hey."

The smile, the pack, and the soft tone used to greeting was much more than what Regina needed to know why Emma Swan dared come knock on her cabinet door on a Saturday.

"Can I come in?" The blonde pointed inside and quickly held back to grab the package unable to sustain singlehandedly.

She rolled her eyes, even if knowing Emma was on a point of not minding the action any longer. Regina did it so often that when a fairly long while went by without the gesture Emma even missed it.

_"May."_  Regina said correcting the sheriff's use of words, "And n-" afterwards as usually happened Emma simply passed by Regina, and walked to the giant table and cleaned some space to rest her pack.

"Thanks." She said on her way in.

As per usual Regina was dumbfounded for few seconds and began to explain she hadn't really invited the blonde, "I didn't actually, oh, never mind." But gave up on it, Emma always played her into that trick and when she saw what happened it was too late. Somehow the blonde always got what she wanted.

"I brought your favorite," Emma happily started unpacking the food, and of course she not only brought Regina's usual but her own. She hadn't have a decent meal since the prior day.

"What is this for, Miss Swan?" Regina collected the cup that was offered, if Emma wasn't leaving her she might just enjoy the goodies she was offering after all.

When Regina swallowed from the cup she immediately pouted over the flavor, this was far from the black coffee taste she expected. When Emma made similar wrinkled nose, frowned brows, with disgust all over her expression they switched cups with a sip of relief.

Emma cleaned her throat and prepared herself for whatever she received after the apology section she could just feel was coming.

"I'm really sorry for this morning." Her words came out so meaningfully she was surprised herself, she really meant it. And she really needed Regina to cope and anything she could do would be done to afford it.

Regina didn't change the pleased expression from getting her cup of coffee when Emma froze waiting the worse to come. "It's alright, dear."

"Is... it?" She was completely lost. Regina should be freaking out by then. Why wasn't she freaking out about compromise, commitment, accomplishment or whatever word she could find to say the same thing. That Emma was nothing but irresponsible.

"Yes," she waved a hand like it was nothing while drinking the coffee. "I just hope you're able to acknowledge the fact that I'm not even considering the mare possibility of a fourth chance." And she smiled, it was the most devilish smile Emma had ever seen, because Regina was aware of how far Emma would go for another chance.

"Third!" Emma knew she'd count the arrest she had to do the prior week when a junk was disturbing the piece of a sleepy night on Storybrook.

"Third chance was last Saturday, and you were past half hour late for our meeting." Regina calmly pointed the situation once again.

Emma could still visualize the fierceness over her lateness.

"But that wasn't fair, I really tried to be there on time-" Emma's whining was cut off by the wave of a single hand of Regina's. And she thought better not to extend the subject, she already heard all of the lecture once and it was enough for a life time.

"As you said so the first time and I was sure you'd say about today's failure." Regina briefly reminded the first lesson's excuse. "I won't be made a fool, Miss Swan. I gave you three chances and you wasted them all, my time is far too precious to throw away with your lack of commitment."

"I need this!" Emma pleaded, and Regina could almost recognize the flavor of desperation.

"Not my problem." Regina snapped back right after.

"Please, Regina! I really need those lessons." Emma watched as the woman walked around making her way back to her chair and sat with all the posture Emma would never reach in such comfortable seat.

"Why should I?" She asked in a kind of challenging way looking up to see the blonde's eyes.

"Cause I'm kindly asking you." Emma pointed simply, as if the possibility of Regina saying yes only for her good manners was actually existent.

"Not enough reason." This time Regina didn't bother looking at the blonde, she only started collecting and organizing her papers into a pile.

Before Emma spoke again she left a tiresome sigh come out. "I need to control it." She closed her eyes in a rather long blink while speaking.

"Why, Miss Swan?"

Regina still hadn't displayed any kind of interest or change in her carelessness.

Ever since the first time the subject was brought on the table by the blonde, there was nothing but mocking, and that's why she avoided any references to the theme whenever Regina was around. She had no interesting on giving the other more reason to badmouth her actions. But the cause asked for it, so she spoke it fast, as a band-aid being ripped off. "I had an accident yesterday I was on a date and..."

"The blind date with one of the random despicable strangers your  _mom_  picks up from the newspaper dating section. I know." Emma couldn't help but notice the strong mockery when she used such word to refer to Mary Margaret.

"It's not like I had much of a choice on that."

"See," Regina's eyes searched Emma for the first time after she sat and the pile was finished with a small quantity of papers that Regina guarded in a folder, "your problem is that you're always trying to blame someone else for your failures. I expected more from the Savior."

"Oh... As if you could judge me, you did much worse than I." She knew she had to win Regina, but sometimes she couldn't help, she just needed to fire back, it happened more often than she could keep track of.

"I was actually referring to the desperate resource to find a suitor."

"Look, I'm not here to be given tips on how I should live my life. I'm here because I truly need your help with this stupid magic shit, and you're the only one who can help me. So please, just, please? There was accident, I was mad, furious, I couldn't control it. Not that I'd care if he burnt out, but what if-" in her desperate call Emma hardly noticed how she switched from irritated to preoccupied and her voice went from slightly louder than she wanted it to be, to much lower than she expected to sound. "I don't want to hurt the people I care about." Fear was vivid into the green eyes, but still she hoped this would not became an add for Regina's list of Things I Should Mock Emma About.

"You've set someone on fire?"

"Almost! Wanna hear the details?" Emma asked hoping that maybe if Regina knew how it happened she could start planning the training with a better perspective of the situation.

"Oh, I would certainly love to hear about your wonderful love life with the yellow page men. Then, maybe we can exchange dating advice and make one of those magazine tests to discover who's our perfect match."

"A simple  _no_  would suffice!"

"But it wouldn't be as much fun, would it?" She actually waited for Emma's response, but the blonde was so absorbed in some kind of analysis trance she decided to move on. "Last chance, Miss Swan! You have one hour to get there. And don't forget you have to pick Henry up in about... forty minutes."

How was she supposed to get there in time? Was Regina out of her mind? She needed to run from completely opposite sides of Storybrook in less than a hour. "You know it would be much easier and not impossible to get there if I knew how to puff."

"You'd have learned how to  _puff_  if you had attended to our meetings." Emma took a first bite of her sandwich. "If I were you, Miss Swan, I'd consider leaving this sandwich for later."

* * *

The success of the magic lessons was truly unexpected, Regina was slightly proud of the new found commitment Emma displayed. She was always already waiting for Regina mindless of where the mayor chose the lesson to be. So far everything was working well, at least nothing had blowout or any uncontrolled magic experience happened. Emma even took her free time to read about it, and she always came back for the next meeting with great questions about the content she'd found in the books.

On the other hand, she just needed a break off the whole have a date thingy, she just wanted to make Mary Margaret understand that she needed to stop at least for a short while. Five completely bloomer dates was enough for the time being. But when the woman insisted she simply started a discussion, and they yelled at each other.

Emma wished she was far away from the house, as much as she wanted to avoid a fight with her parents she just wasn't holding anymore of their expectations for her. She just wanted to live her own life, in the real-world expectations and take her own time.

And that's how she found herself at Regina's porch in the middle of the night. Henry was spending the night this weekend and she just thought maybe now that her interactions with his other mother developed into a friendlier relationship, why not?

"Can I spent the night?" She said internally smiling because the line always worked, Regina couldn't help but correct her and that's when she went inside even when uninvited.

_"May,_  and-" The woman passing by the doorstep cut off her words.

"Thanks!" Emma spoke putting her jacket on the holder and walking farther inside.

"You do it on purpose, don't you?" Regina asked not really carrying for the obvious answer.

"What?" Emma pretended she hadn't followed the question.

Regina just sighted shaking her head before loudly announcing to her son while walking to the TV room. "Henry we have a guest- Henry! You slept already!"

The boy startled with the call and shamefully sat straight on the couch rubbing his eyes.

"Sorry, this part is too boring." He apologized after knowing he was the one insisting to watch Lord of the Rings after all, even when Regina argued that they weren't rested enough for this particular trilogy.

"You said you'd not sleep this time."

And also, he slept all the other times they tried to watch it.

"My bad."

"It's not even ten minutes through, kid." Emma mocked him and her presence was finally noticed by the boy.

"Emma!" He sounded happy to see her and surprised, so his eyes wandered to Regina with silent plea for the sheriff's stay.

"Miss Swan is... Spending the night." Regina reluctantly explained.

Regina restarted the movie and added a pot of popcorn and a cup of soda, as Emma insisted. She knew even if Regina wasn't a consumer she kept at least couple of bottles and cans on her fridge.

"Mom! Mom! You said you'd not sleep!"

Movie was about to finish, it was only the first one, they clearly weren't watching the three in a single night. Emma and Henry stoped watching when the blonde noticed Regina asleep on her side of the couch. And the boy shook her awake practically.

"Yeah, Regina, shame on you... At least Henry is hanging on now." Emma spoke with her ridiculous mockery tone and blinked for Henry.

A while went by before the recently awake Regina noticed the closeness of the other woman. And another while passed until she voiced any discomfort concerning it.

"Miss Swan, are you familiar with personal space?"

"Yeah?" Emma was honestly misunderstanding the implications.

"You are intruding mine." Regina made it clear.

And for the first time Emma actually noticed she was nearly resting her head in Regina's shoulder, while her body slightly tilted on the other's direction.

"Oh, sorry." She straightened up on the sit uncomfortable with the situation.

They both were grateful that Henry chose the moment to excitedly announce a good scene just started.


	2. Strange Changes

"There's something wrong with Henry."

Regina could be a lot of things, sometimes she was an evil bitch, others she was the mayor in her demanding habitat, and for few times she pretended to play nice... But mindless of what she was being, she was always acting over Henry's best interests. She never left the mom character get out, it stuck with her twenty four seven. And even if Emma found it really big of the woman, she knew Regina could be a pain in the ass if she had the littlest suspicious that something was wrong with her son. And Emma knew how over the top she acted once in a while.

And that day was clearly the woman's  _once._

"I know! He slept ten minutes through Lord of the Rings-"

"Not that! He's been acting strange lately, I'm worried about it."

Emma engaged in a really hard battle to control her eyes and not to roll them, the  _Here we go again!_  that passed through her thoughts was enough.

"Strange how?"

Regina indicated silently for the blonde to hold her thoughts and wait. Henry was finished with his breakfast already, he usually would just sit for a book or something. Though recently he's been out more often, and negligent with some tasks from home and school.

"Henry, I asked you to take the trash out last night." She yelled when he was nearly out the door.

Without a second thought Henry walked back into the kitchen.

"Oh, sorry, mom, I forgot. I'll just do it now, 'Kay?"

In complete silence they observed as he did as requested, Emma still trying to understand what was actually wrong with him.

"What does that prove?" The blonde asked once Henry closed the door leaving.

"I never take the trash out at nights. It's always every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the morning. Yesterday was Saturday, and I never asked him to do it." She explained the routine.

"So?"

"Miss Swan, I never change my house's routine if not strictly needed. And my son is always eager to notice and question it. He's been having problems at school also. He's not as excellent student as he used to be."

"He's got good grades, Regina." Emma had to argue with that point, because yes, maybe his grades had fallen a little, but still the kid went through some hard shit it was only normal his studies fell a little from the pedestal of excellency Regina requested.

"My son isn't a good grades student, he's a perfect grades student."

"I think you're overreacting." Emma tried reasoning but knew the other would insist, "But I'll keep an eye on him, okay?'

"Thank you."

"Well," Regina collected their empty cups and started washing up, "we have a lesson to get to."

Emma had lost track of time, she actually was late for someone who needed to go home and be back at Regina's in few minutes so she quickly ran for her key-chain.

"But I didn't even showered yet, I need to get home and-" The unusual tingling sensation was overwhelming, and ran through her body like a bucket of warm water would but she was not wet at all, "what d'you do?" She questioned froze in place.

"Shower, it's a simple spell."

"That's cool! This could save me a lot of time."

"You're such a pig, and that's why I'm not teaching you this." Regina splashed few drops of water from her hand to the blonde's face before taking a dishrag to dry hands.

"Alright, I'll learn it by myself." Emma shrugged it off.

"That I'd like to see..."

"Is this a challenge?"

"Yes."

* * *

Emma Swan was not one to prowl around daydreaming, however, that's exactly what she kept doing with a higher frequency than she gave it credit for. When she woke before leaving her bed, when she showered, when she ate breakfast, when she had a big bunch of paper work to do, when she was asked to look after Mary Margaret's oven and lost track of time making whatever plate burn, when she sat at Granny's to take a hot cocoa. Not even the magic books had her full attention.

It all started with one call...

"Sorry, Regina, I can't make it." She sounded all the sad she was, the meetings with Regina were one of the best parts of her week and she knew how Regina reacted whenever Emma had to be absent. The sheriff just hoped that as a lot of things change this had too, that Regina was more flexible with Emma if she couldn't make it to the lesson.

" _What?!_ " Regina's voice wasn't actually mad, she was... Disappointed?

"I need to talk to Mary Margaret now, I can't come." Emma explained.

It took a moment for the response to sound through the speaker, the change of tone was clearly there, " _If you want to keep this arrangement going I suggest you request Snow to wait for a more suitable moment. You have fourteen minutes and fifty-one seconds to be at my backyard._ "

"I can't." Emma was surprised with how tiny her voice sounded, how sad and pathetic she must've seemed. Last thing she needed. She bit her lower lip, her eyes were half-closed and her eyebrows frowned while she profoundly regretted how it came out.

" _Then I can't either. Your choice, Emma._ " Instead of the harsh intonation, Regina was soft with her words, as if she didn't mean to make Emma feel any judgement through, if she didn't want to do this, be in this position, although she needed. And the way she spoke Emma's name was just all too much to reason.

And that's all the blonde sheriff thought for hours, days...  _Your choice, Emma_. It kept finding its way around her mind every once in, well, always.

Even she almost being late, Emma did get to Regina's backyard on time. She was breathless from the run she had done to where the mayor waited for her to appear. Regina walked from side to side and scrubbed her hands against each other with nervousness. If Emma wasn't concentrated on recovering herself she might have noticed the relief smile that blossomed on Regina's lips briefly after she walked in.

Whenever something went wrong with her parents Emma stopped by at Regina's, and the currency of this was increasing a considerable amount for nearly every weekend in a full month. Apparently Emma thought she should restart the whole dating thing, and it always brought her troubles at home, because Mary always woke her with the same questionnaire and they always ended fighting by the tenth, or eleventh question.

But Regina was tired of the situation, after all Emma was an adult she might start behaving like one, maybe then her mother would stop treating her like she's some sort of teenager who's still learning to make decisions. For times she wandered where the woman that broke her curse so long ago hid herself into.

Dinner was nearly finished when the doorbell came to life, and Regina doubted Emma would be so early on her front door, after all this was just the time she usually took her dates, she asked so that none of their lessons were scheduled in difficult times of the day.

Although, there she was, Regina rolled her eyes when opening the door to the woman she expected to hear the insufferable request to pass inside the house, so she could correct and finally Emma'd walk inside. Regina didn't know why exactly they kept the routine, they just did.

But for one time, Emma kept silent. Until Regina huffed opening the door and stepping away giving passage for the other.

For the look on Emma's eyes she was just about to postulate over whatever situation happened that night, and Regina was not about to take it. She might have been condescending with the situation, but everything had its limits and this was hers.

"What was it this time? Oh no, let me guess! You had a really bad date with a radon person today and your mom couldn't help her prying, and you got home to Snow and her... What was it again? Sure! Her thousand questions about it."

Regina felt angry, not only because Emma seemed completely incapable of making her mother understand she wasn't fine with the way Mary Margaret seemed to want to make choices for her daughter. Also for how the blonde always ended up at this same spot, where Regina could anticipate what exactly she'd say.

"Would you stop it! You have no idea what I'm going through here... I don't think I can make it tomorrow." Emma was actually pissed, not just whiny as usual. But it didn't keep Regina from her own moment of raging.

"No, I don't have idea. You claim to be having the worse days of your life in this town, but still do nothing to stop it. You chose to do this, you chose to keep doing it, so whatever this really bad date did to you has nothing to do with your commitment to this specific moment of your day. I expect you to be here regularly on time unless it's something of huge importance and not a childish reaction to a situation you caused yourself. Are we understood?" Emma kept silent, but Regina demanded an answer. "Are we understood?"

"Yeah."

_"Yes."_  She corrected the lousy response.

_"Yes."_

"Good." Regina walked to the dining table and arranged an extra dish for Emma.

And they sat in front of each other.

"I hope you like Apple pie." Regina spoke while cutting two slices for them both and placing on each of their plates.

A moment of silent went by, and the thought that had bee haunting Emma lately came back. Regina's voice. She didn't even noticed the pie Regina offered.

"Miss Swan?"

"You called me Emma. On the phone." She spoke as if this was the greatest enigma the world had ever known, a completely complex puzzle she was hardly going to solve.

"How was it?" Regina spoke after yet another salient moment. She avoided Emma's words, the last thing she needed was rationalizing why she called Emma by her first name.

"What?"

"The date, how was your date?"

"Oh, fine I guess..." Emma responded shrugging with disappointment for the sudden change of subject, and finally starting her piece of pie. The last thing she wanted to discuss with Regina was the damn date.

"Really, Miss Swan?" Regina insisted.

"Okay. There was no date. He was late and I just waited for him to arrive and left." She looked down to the content in her plate while playing with the spoon, not ready to face Regina, who sure had one of her winning smiles on.

"Why? Why did you leave only because of a few minutes of lateness?" Dear God, Regina was so enjoying this moment.

"Because, lateness is a sign of uncompromising person and he did not really seem to care about it. That shows his lack of commitment, and that's not why I went on a date with a complete stranger, I don't need to get laid, you know?"

"Yes, you do." Regina countered.

"Regina!" Emma whined over the abrupt comment.

"Who did teach you that might I ask?" Regina casually asked.

"Yo... id."

"Sorry, I couldn't quite comprehend what you just said."

"You. You did."

"Thank you, Miss Swan. For your commitment to this."

* * *

When Regina received the call that night she breathed a deep deep deep breath before answering, because for the obviousness of whatever it was ahead involved troubles and a certain blonde. And she was right.

_"My hand just slept..."_

Thought about retort the woman with a  _Hello, how are you Emma? I'm fine, by the way, thanks for asking._  But Regina wasn't one of running through a circle, so she kept the direct talk.

"What did you do?"

Emma seemed to ponder until finally the response came from the other side of the line,  _"Nothing... he didn't deserve. He was touchy, and smelly, and loud, and he wouldn't let me go so I sent him. I sent him to have a little reflection moment with an intimate friend at the bathroom."_

"Is this your soft and polite way of saying you gave him digestive issues?"

_"Did it work?"_  Emma asked hoping for a positive response that deep down she knew wasn't coming.

"No!" Regina stated disgusted.

That was just one in the ocean of atrocious ways Emma ended her nights. Yeah, some of them were decent people but there seemed to be no way she'd actually connect enough with anyone. And she was actually almost giving up on the quest because no matter how fucked up was being out with strangers and all that... Shouldn't she at least enjoy some of the whole bunch of dates? So maybe she wasn't made for the love business.

* * *

Henry was sorta behaving out of his character lately, Emma could finally notice. But she knew in her gut that whatever reason he had, this couldn't be as bad as Regina's worries made, but Emma knew Regina and there was nothing to be done but wait until they could be sure of what kept their son so out in the clouds.

Regina was a pain in her ass, she just called nearly everyday asking if there was something new and giving reports on how her son did the most ridiculous facets, like forgetting to get naked before getting into shower, sneaking on her garden to collect flowers when he thought she wasn't watching, he even started a run routine, and asked for exercise equipment. Why the heck would a thirteen year old want to grown muscles was beyond Regina's knowledge.

The brunette always expected to hear Emma's own report back, but the blonde wasn't as comfortable giving away details of Henry making himself embarrassed. But when things were just too much, she started observing closely, and Emma noticed the notebook he recently started carrying around, making notes day and night.

And just as the dots started linking she got a call from Regina with one more of her expected briefing sections.

_"Em-"_  Regina stopped her speech suddenly, and restarted with farther formality,  _"Miss Swan."_  Emma questioned why she kept from saying her name instead of Miss Swan, Sheriff Swan, or one of the names she'd use to avoid pronouncing  _Emma_.  _"I found a note on his picket."_

"For God's sake Regina-" Emma started to censure Regina right away.

_"I wasn't prying, alright?"_  Regina immediately defended herself before Emma came with a lecture. This was one of the few times they reversed parts.  _"It just fell from his jacket pocket while I was collecting it to wash. But that's not why I called, the note said someone requested to see him this afternoon at the Toll Bridge. Why would someone invite my son to visit such place?"_

It was funny that Regina could be so naive when it came to Henry, and Emma couldn't help her chuckle.

"He's thirteen, Regina." The blonde spoke as if the sentence explained itself.

But this was Regina and, even if it didn't happen so often, she only saw things when she wanted. And this was most certainly one of the times she didn't want to. So Emma hang up the call and collected her keys.

If Regina needed to see it, that was exactly what Emma would do. Show her.

Regina's office was in complete quietness when Emma "hurricane" Swan arrived bursting into her office and taking her by the hand out the door without any explanations. She didn't seem to mind a tiny bit the glares they attracted with Regina's complaint, but the mayor didn't resist being taken wherever Emma was taking her.

"I already figure it out, but you need to see so I'm showing you." Emma said halfway to the cruise.

They left the car, and standing from the distance they both saw Henry and whoever sent the note to him, Regina was surprised to see a girl there. And as much as she didn't want to accept it was happening. Emma was smiling, and Regina tried to do as the woman beside her, but she just couldn't.

It completely terrified her, and it took a glance or two over the mayor for Emma to notice her fearsome expression, she didn't hesitate on taking Regina's hand as a gesture of comfort. As who said, _It's okay, I'm here for you._ Emma saw as Regina eased under the humble touch and decided to keep holding her just in case.

"Should we look away?" Emma asked against her will, she totally didn't mean, she was excited as hell for Henry last thing she wanted was to look away.

"I don't think it would hurt to observe a bit more." Regina whispered while paying close attention to the scene.

Henry was a bit clumsy, he certainly got it from Emma, Regina thought. The girl seemed to be shy, too shy for someone who dared writing a note, Regina didn't expect such behavior. Henry tried calming, and making sure the girl was alright her before actually kissing her.

And Regina eased the last bit she needed to when Emma started humming Kiss the Girl, and so she smiled, she felt happy for it. Even with all the concerns running through her mind, she felt this wasn't bad after all.

"They're so cute. She's beautiful, isn't she?" Emma's pride was noticed galaxies away. "He's got a great taste." Regina wanted to give one of her eye rolls but instead she just chuckled with the comment. "He probably got that from me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Just one more to go. R&R?


	3. What do you mean?

Within time Emma started insisting that Regina should stick around after they finished her lessons, at first she just brought a book and insisted that they did a talk about it, which always ended with them rambling about anything but the book itself. While afterwards she just started bringing food and drinks and they sat and shared and had their talks.

Had been a while since Emma last spoke about her dates, Regina didn't ask either. She was completely fine with not having the subject around. Maybe the blonde finally stepped up to her mother.

"How is it?" Emma carefully asked paying more attention to the bottle of beer on her hands than at the quizzed face Regina made.

"What?"

She guarded a moment of insurance before actually saying what they were talking about this afternoon. "To fall in love."

Regina felt completely uncomfortable with the question, she rarely spoke about any related theme with anyone, "I believe you know it."

"I don't think so," she knew Regina was referring to Neal, "sometimes I think it was just an infatuation, I was young and I just liked being around."

"Then I believe there's no difference from that to what I've known."

"I see everyone is always doing all those amazing acts of love and devotion and I've never done anything for the love of anybody romantically. And I might not have been there, but I've heard of how you fought for Daniel and then Robin. I just never could, never had the will to." Before Regina asked, what about Neal then? She clarified, "when he went away I just let him go and moved on. I kept all the things he left just to remember I shouldn't let myself feel it again and it's been working."

"That's stupid."

"Only one more thing to my list." Emma joked earning a chuckle from Regina.

"You can't forbid yourself to feel it, you can't forget it, can't stop suffering when you lose, there'll always be a void... But sometimes you've got the chance to move on and love again, you can or not take it. It's entirely up to you."

"Did you?"

Internally Regina wanted to say yes, she did. She wanted. She needed. "No, my chances came mostly at wrong times... With the wrong people..."

"I just wanted to have one good date. But I can't help it, even the perfectly nice dates are somehow turned into a disaster." She remembered a bunch of her collections, and for her surprise with them she mostly recorded the comments in which she got to Regina's and talked about them. "What about you? You must have tones of stories about bad dates."

Regina stopped the bottle before it got to her mouth and chuckled at the question and the implication Emma made. "I don't." She announced proud of not having any bad historical dates.

"Then you must have a few?" Emma tried again.

"I don't. I have none." Regina pointed.

"That's impossible, how come you didn't go on any unsuccessful date?"

"Where I come from we don't do dates, we do weddings. We don't get to spend some time together just to know each other, fall in love and marry. We are arranged into an union that could benefit both parties and that's about it. I was set up with a random strange king, who had power, wealth, and status to take the family to the next level."

Emma had to resist the silence, she wanted to say she was sorry about it, about how Regina had to live her life without what she seemed to seek more than anyone. She felt sorry that someone with this huge capacity for love couldn't find someone worth the feeling. But she knew sorry was the last thing anyone would want to hear in her place. So she kept it inside.

* * *

Emma Swan was a complete wreck when it came to unexpected happening in her personal life, she hated experiencing those. She avoided them as much as she could, because on a high currency she just ended up making mistakes she'd pass a long long time regretting. She hated being caught on situations she didn't know how to react. So ever since she was a teen she liked to keep herself in a comforter zone of null unexpected situations.

Until Henry came knocking at her door, and all of her standards started changing once she got him back to Storybrook. A town where she learned, later, the important things just come and take you, without warnings or consideration, you just have to adapt and keep going.

Still she hated whenever she was caught off guard. She hated feeling the floor leaving her feet, the words leaving her tongue, the actions leaving her brain. She hated not having a reaction to get out without leaving a trace of her emotions behind.

She hated Regina for making her feel it for one more time, when she just thought life allowed her to have a pretty good routine where she could anticipate her days. And she hated to be sadder than she could measure.

"That's it," the brunette started her words with a friendly smile, and a display of how proud she was for Emma's learning and the accomplishment of her goal in such short amount of time. "I've shown you everything I know, you can go by yourself from now on."

"What? Bu- but I... Can't... Just-" Emma stuttered nonsensically.

"That's it Miss Swan," she explained, "you've learned all I had to teach you."

"There's got to be more!" Emma's unbelief allied with her desperation.

"There is," Regina started gently, "but you already know everything I can teach on a basic and middle basis, you can develop to the advanced ground by yourself."

"That's... Finished, huh?"

Just by then Regina figured why was the blonde so persistent on accepting they were over with this. And the smile forming on Regina's face slowly faded form her lips. She thought that maybe Emma was so unbelievably happy she was finally free from seeing the mayor's face every once in a week that she wanted to make sure before her happiness started showing.

"Yes," she said in a whisper, even if firm, "you and I no longer have a weekly commitment."

The distance was insufferable for Emma, she just wanted to have an excused as solid as she needed to go see Regina. Sometimes she did walk to the mayor's office with lunch or snacks or just black coffee to deliver. However, the woman was usually busy with some meeting that Emma couldn't break just because. Her desire to see the other was not enough reason, not even in her own mind.

They didn't actually have a conversation until she had a meeting with Regina and David about the security of the town, where they discussed goals, methods, budget, and increasing the number of law agents. Emma really expected the meeting to be over earlier so that maybe, just maybe, they could finally have a cup of coffee and exchange some words for a decent amount of time. But when noticed by Regina the repeated movement of the blonde checking the time on her phone she earned nothing but a cold "Do you have to be somewhere else, Miss Swan?".

There was a great deal of thought until Emma actually made something about it, until she found some guts, collected one of her famous leather jackets that she knew Regina loved to hate and walked to her porch with a DVD copy of the Hobbit and pizza.

The door was answered not long after she ring sounded.

"Miss Swan." Regina sounded surprise, but still not unpleasant with the sheriff's presence, which was an accomplishment.

She started giving a fake random excuse, "Hey... I was passing by and-" but she saw no reason to go with it, so she decided to switch to honest mode, "That's a lie, I was at home and Mary is there and things aren't really good at home so I thought why not pay you a visit? I brought The Hobbit!"

Regina was always the one criticizing Emma whenever she argued with her parents because of the things she got into willingly, but when the excuse was mentioned that night, she was glad the blonde did so.

After the first night Emma came by every other for a long while, she finally had a talk with Mary and exchanged the Friday dinners for meeting with Regina and, sometimes, Henry. She'd come by every night around eight to hung around bring movies, games and foods that Regina usually refused to eat but ended up being convinced to try.

Spending time with Regina was much more pleasant than going out with any of the men she ever dated, Emma knew for sure. She liked being with Regina, she enjoyed a lot of things about being with Regina, and she also hated being without the other's company.

So when she first met with the mayor at the diner when she passed for her coffee, Emma changed her routine so she could be there everyday by the same time as the woman. Then she arranged some random excuse for walking with Regina to the office before heading to the station.

* * *

Reading one of the magic books she recently got at the library Emma saw an interesting spell to fix her vision, she had gone years without using glasses, but the lens were not giving her the ultimate freedom. So she decided why not use the spell on herself and get ready of her problem?

It was a simple spell, and so she started concentration.

She closed her eyes and the first slight tingling started on her eyes, it felt comfortable, and she started opening her eyes slowly. The blur she found was unusual, she should be able to see the surroundings perfectly.

She remembered then that she didn't remove the lens, and so she went to take them off, only suddenly her eyes started itching more and more. Until it reached an unbearable state and she had to rub. But the rub started causing an intense pain. So with desperation she reached her phone and not being able to see much dialed one of the few number she knew from memory.

"REGINA!" She yelled as soon as the phone was picked up. "REGINA I NEED HELP!"

"What happened?" Regina was concerned immediately, she never heard Emma with such desperation, or screaming like that.

The voice didn't come from the cellphone, and Regina's presence was confirmed when a pair of soft small hands reached to take the object from Emma's ear.

"My eyes! I was trying a spell and I had a problem with my lens, it kinda got into my eye and it hurts like hell, can you get it out?"

Emma internally begged for Regina's magic knowledge be extended enough to solve her problem.

"H-How?" For the first time ever Emma heard Regina stutter, this must be worse than she actually thought. "I'm not a doctor, Miss Swan."

"Can't you use magic? Puff it out?"

Puff it out? Emma should stop thinking that puffing things was a real solution. And search for better terms for the use of magic.

"No, it's too risky, you could get blind."

Emma started blinking her eyes quickly to obtain a vision of the woman standing in front of her, but the action was fast reprimanded.

"Keep it shut, I'll get you to the hospital."

Hospital? Emma hated when she had to attend to hospitals for her own healthy problems, because hospitals usually meant that the pain would not stop for too long, that they would put her into high drugs and she'd be out of herself for longer than she wanted, and from time to time she would suffer, and slowly, really slowly, the pain would get away.

"But it really hurts!" She desperately stated.

"I know, honey, but I can't do anything."

When Regina said honey, she did everything. The use of the word took the thought off the pain for a short amount of time. But she was back to suffering shortly, not without making a note to make a comment about it asap.

And that's what she did when she woke at the hospital and Regina was alone in the room looking to the corridors throughout the glass of the room for something or someone.

"You called me honey." Emma weakly spoke attracting the brown eyes to herself.

Regina eased her search and walked until she was close to the bed with a hint of a smile that wanted to come out but she repressed eagerly.

"It was the middle of a desperate moment." She gave the best excuse she could find at the moment, but for her disgrace wasn't enough to foil Emma.

"I don't care." Emma felt sleepy again, she related it to the use of some drug but still fought to keep awake.

"What does that mean?"

She heard the question, and she wanted to respond, but her battle was lost and her eyes closed again leaving time to say a brief "G'night." Before she was completely taken.

* * *

For the next days Emma only passed by granny's when Regina was there to get a good morning or a hello, Regina was not avoiding her but she thought it was best just to keep her distance for some time. She kept running in circles on her mind,  _What does that mean?_ , Regina's question still didn't have an answer. She hadn't the littlest idea of what that meant.

Regina, on the other hand, thought that Emma was drove away by her excuse for using an intimate name to call her. She had been a long while without calling anyone but Henry by any similar name. Though, with Emma she found herself doing a lot of things she exclusively used for Henry, and other she only dared to think a long time ago.

Whenever Henry came by she knew he was just there, like she could feel his presence. And so it happened to Emma. Even if she waited until the doorbell announced the visitor, she knew the blonde was just there, about to knock.

The first visit she received after the incident with the spell, Emma took more than Regina could afford to wait, so she simply send everything to space and made known Regina was well aware of the woman on her front door.

"Coming, Miss Swan." She loudly said before reaching and opening the door.

"How'd y'know was me?" Emma asked astonished.

In the middle of her impatience Regina hadn't thought what to say if the question was made, and she knew it would be, that's why she kept wait the previous times Emma came by. "Only one person in the whole town would come to my house on a Friday morning unannounced."

"Oh..." Emma could actually list a number of people who would, hadn't she heard from the Jeova Witnesses? Or the door to door sellers? Or the scouts? But she didn't mentioned any of those.

"What do you want?" A while ago Regina spoke the question whenever Emma came by with impatience of whom just wanted to move on with their day after having such displeased visit. But for a while new the question was spoke with a tone that made Emma feel welcomed.

"See how you're doing?"

Regina knew she was just making an excuse up, and she actually never minded that Emma gave her just about any excuse to be on her doorstep. But the mayor wanted to know the actual reason why Emma Swan was knocking on her door, at least once. She wanted to get to the next stage of this game.

"Come back when you know what you want."

She was about to close the door but Emma's feet got on the way.

"I know it!" Emma practically yelled in a breath. And kept with the same tone, before her courage ran out. "A date!"

"Don't you think you had enough dates for a life time?"

"With you." She snapped.

"What?"

Regina had no idea how to react to this. She didn't have a clue if the woman was joking, or if this was serious, or if it was a test. She just wasn't sure of what meant Emma Swan wanting a date with her. But she had no trouble setting her mind for what she wanted it to mean, what she wanted to believe it was.

"I'll take you out tonight, I'll come by eight sharp to take you."

"I didn't-"

"I know but you didn't need to, there's only one person who comes here every Saturday at eight precisely at morning or at night. And I really need this, want this. So let me take you out, please? Just once, and if you don't like it than we'll stop and I promise not to ask you again."

Emma saw a collection of different smiles coming from Regina's mouth, she saw the sarcastic, the sad, the fake, the politician, the cruel, the motherly, but she never saw any smile as beautiful as the one she got after her beg. It was much more than what she anticipated to get, it was much more than what she asked, hoped. And she loved every tiny bit of it. And she wanted to make a collection out of them.

Regina took a deep breath, "Emma, can you come in for breakfast? Henry would love it. So would I."

"May I?"

Now Emma was the smiling one. She did one of those love fool grins that people get whenever they see, or speak, or just stand close to someone they fall for.

She went inside as usually happened when she came to visit, but Regina's hand on her hips stopped her at the doorstep and there was no time to even blink, because her mouth was taken and her lips gathered with the most soft pair she ever felt. It was a humble touch of lips, where they barely felt each other's, and before they could intensify the contact the moment was interrupted making them share embarrassed smiles when Henry's voice sounded.

"Oh, come on, guys. Did I really have to see that early in the morning?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's it, were are finished here. Hope that it made actual sense as a piece, joining all the small ideas into a bigger one and all that, cause I was not really sure if it would work until I was done writing. So, thanks for those who read this little piece! I already appreciate you for doing so, but it would be great to have a feed back, so if you have time to leave a review I'd love to know your thoughts, comments, or whatever you've got to say! A thousand thanks again!

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a short one, I've got just 2 chapters to go. It's the product of some notes I kept for like forever, so I gathered them and that's the result. Hope you guys like it and R&R please? :-)


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